Pricing hacks for your Airbnb property

Homesharing is fun – but you need to make sure that the effort doesn’t outweigh the reward. One way to avoid this is to get your pricing right, so you get the best possible income from your Airbnb listing. We’ve put together some hacks so you can enjoy the sharing economy experience without losing out…

Use Smart Pricing

Airbnb’s very own ‘Smart Pricing’ means you can set your prices to go up or down automatically, depending on any changes in people looking for listings like yours – like seasonal or local demand. To turn on Smart Pricing, go to ‘Your listings’ on Airbnb.com and select a listing, click ‘Pricing’ at the top of the page, and next to ‘Nightly price’, click ‘Edit’. Then, next to ‘Smart pricing’, click the circle to turn on smart pricing and enter a minimum and maximum price. Then click ‘Save’.

Get your timing right

When you first put your home on Airbnb, you need to establish yourself, so discount your nightly rate at the beginning until you’re better known by the Airbnb community. You can bring your rate up gradually as you get more reviews. Don’t leave it too long to do this though, otherwise you’ll find that the effort of hosting is outweighing the financial reward.

Vary your pricing

The first way to create variety in your pricing is by making sure your weekend and weekday prices are different. Just like hotels, you’ll find there’s more demand at the weekend. Then look at the annual trends in your area – do people flock to your region for a specific season? Smart Pricing will adjust accordingly, but you need to be aware that pricing too low during high season could mean you’re missing out on a good income from your homeshare.

Keep your eye on the calendar

A wise host has half an eye on the local calendar for events like festivals, sports tournaments or trade shows and conferences. Bookings for specific events can give you the opportunity to charge more per night. Do some research, plan ahead and use Google to see what’s coming up near you that could mean an influx of visitors.

Remember your base rate

The rate that Airbnb shows on search results next your main listing image is your advertised rate. But if the person searching hasn’t selected any dates, Airbnb displays your base rate. Our tip is to make your base rate is a bit lower than your actual rate. When a potential guest selects your listing and chooses travel dates, the actual price for those days will be calculated – and it will be a bit more. But they’ve already seen your lovely home and they’ll probably want to book anyway. Happy hosting!

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